IBM products to boost application development

IBM will announce integrations between its Rational and Tivoli product lines that enable users to automate processes across development, testing, and operations teams.

The service management offerings feature Rational products for automating the build cycle during the development phase and Tivoli technologies for automatic deployment of software onto production services and management of performance, IBM said.

"Widespread use of the Internet and easy access to high computing power is making it possible for companies of all sizes to develop and deliver innovative new products and services," said Al Zollar, general manager of IBM Tivoli software, in a statement released by the company.

"IBM's new service management software allows businesses to automate what was previously a labour intensive process, with the peace of mind that the new service is developed and delivered quickly and accurately," Zollar said.

Integrations include:

• Rational Test Lab Manager, Tivoli Provisioning Manager, and Tivoli Application Dependency and Discovery Manager, to help companies accelerate time to market through streamlined discovery and provisioning of test lab and production environments.
• Rational Performance Tester and Tivoli Composite Application Manager, to boost application and service time by replicating "real world" environments for faster testing and problem resolution.
• Rational Asset Manager and Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database, to improve application delivery through integration of asset data across development operations.
• Rational ClearQuest and Tivoli Service Request Manager, to integrate problem and ticket information across service support and development fix tracking systems. Users can resolve problems quicker through synchronisation of these systems, IBM said.
• Rational Software Architect and Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager, to accelerate application and service delivery through modeling of application deployment environments based on live configuration data.

Additionally, IBM will announce software delivery solutions aimed at automating development tasks and team collaboration, offering a deeper view of IT building blocks, and streamlining asset lifecycle management.

Solutions include:

• Rational Systems Architect and Rational Focal Point, a combination for trade off analysis and prioritisation.
• Rational Quality Manager, featuring enhancements to provide understanding and control of sources of risk.
• Rational Team Concert and IBM Rational Asset Manager, providing a combination for streamlining asset lifecycle management.

IBM also will announce business services for implementing a service management strategy. IBM Management Consulting Services help forge an IT service strategy with a defined service portfolio and catalogue, the company said.